SEVEN people have been found guilty of sexually abusing and raping children as part of a child sex abuse ring in a drugs den in Glasgow.
The jurors, in what is believed to have been the largest prosecution of a child sex abuse ring in Scotland, are being offered counselling and have been excused from ever serving on a jury again.
Judge Lord Beckett thanked them for serving on such a long, “harrowing trial” and listening to the “most distressing of evidence”.
Iain Owens, 45, Elaine Lannery, 39, Lesley Williams, 41, Paul Brannan, 41, Barry Watson, 47, Scott Forbes, 50 and John Clark, 46, were found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow of rape and sexual assault on Tuesday. Marianne Gallagher, was found guilty of assault.
The charges against the seven included making children perform sex acts on each other, serious sexual assault, rape and neglect.
Three of the accused were acquitted of all charges – Mark Carr, 49, Richard Gachagan, 45 and Leona Laing, 50.
Three children were said to have been victims of a litany of sex crimes including rape and sexual abuse in a drug den where heroin and crack cocaine were used.
In her closing speech for the Crown, advocate depute Cath Harper told the High Court in Glasgow the children were allegedly subjected to “group rapes” by 11 accused, some of whom also faced charges of attempted murder.
Owens, Lannery, Brannan, Williams and Clark were found guilty of attempting to murder a baby girl, who was put in a microwave, forced to eat dog food and hung by her clothes from a nail, as well as being chased by people wearing a devil mask on occasions between December 2015 and June 2019.
An allegation the 11 accused used an Ouija board or similar object to “call on spirits and demons” causing the child victims to “believe that they could see, hear and communicate with spirits and demons” and making them take part in “witchcraft” has been dropped.
